Wyman family of note

To forget one's ancestors is to be in a brook without a source, a tree without a root ~ Chinese proverb

The town of Winchester, MA

The Wyman brothers, Francis (1C10X) and John (1C10X), arrived in America in 1640 and, in 1641, settled in that part of Woburn which would become the town of Winchester. Our relationship to the Wymans is complicated because I can only find proof that these brothers were our first cousins 10 times removed. Their mother was Elizabeth Richardson (9A), sister of our grandfather Thomas Richardson (9GGF) who also settled in Woburn. I strongly believe, however, that our grandmother Blanch Wyman (GGM) of Pennsylvania is directly descended from one of these two men. The Wymans and Richardsons intermarried prolifically throughout the years and their progeny spread far and wide across the United States.

Doctor Rufus Wyman.

Our cousin Rufus Wyman (4C7X) was born in 1778 in Woburn, MA. He was the son of Zebediah Wyman (4C7X) and Elizabeth Richardson (3C8X). Rufus graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1799. His after-graduate practice was in the Boston almshouse where many physicians in the day honed their trade. Ca. 1801, he joined the practice of Dr. John Jeffries in Boston. Rufus had worked with Jeffries for about a year when he began to suffer with "pulminary difficulties." He decided that getting away from the coast would be the best course of action so ca. 1803 he moved inland to Chelmsford, MA where he opened his own practice.

(1) Woburn (2) Boston (3) Chelmsford

Rufus married in 1810 and had five children, four sons and a daughter. Two years later, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. After fifteen years of a very successful medical practice in Chelmsford, Rufus set off on another course.

A group of prominent citizens in Boston had been working on plans to establish a hospital in Charlestown which would include an asylum for the insane. At that time, people with mental disorders were confined to almshouses where the level of care was generally not adequate. The asylum attached to Massachusetts General Hospital would be one of the first in the country. In March of 1818, Rufus was unanimously elected to hold the posts of both Superintendent and Physician of the new asylum.

Before taking office, Rufus was sent by the Trustees of the hospital to Philadelphia and New York to inspect existing facilities there. In July, he moved to Charlestown where a mansion, formerly owned by a wealthy merchant, had been provided for him and his family.

For the 17 years that Rufus was at the asylum, he was the only physician on staff. He had one assistant physician who helped in the apothecary and with the care of patients. In April of 1819, Rufus had fifteen patients, six women and nine men. By 1821, the number had increased to 146. According to Wikipedia:

Wyman had become acquainted with moral reformers’ treatment instituted at the Retreat at York, an asylum run by the Quaker community and William Tuke. Wyman instituted Tuke's treatment at the Asylum for the Insane. He added occupation and recreation therapies for patients, and limited or removed the use of restraints. At times, patients shared meals with Wyman's family in the mansion. 

In 1822 Rufus reported on the state of the asylum. Below are some excerpts from his report which give insight into the treatment of people with mental disorders at the time;

Although some medical gentlemen had acquired reputation in curing insanity, yet in this part of our country the disease had been generally believed to be incurable. Lunatics have, therefore, been most commonly doomed to long and severe confinement to secure them and their friends from personal violence. Many, who have adopted a more correct opinion, have been deterred from sending from home their lunatic friends by a belief that harsh and severe treatment, exciting fear and terror, would be thought most beneficial. It is too true that such treatment, in time not long past, has been approved and often advised by medical men. An entire revolution of opinion respecting the treatment of lunatics has been produced. This change of opinion is pervading the public mind; but its progress is slow.

. . .Of those who have been encouraged to seek relief for their friends in this Asylum a great proportion have supposed that a few days or weeks were quite sufficient to determine the probabilty of cure. Perceiving no improvement in so short a time, and fearing the accumulation of expense, they have abandoned the use of means, and trusted to the efforts of nature for the termination of a disease the most dreadful and the most humiliating. These efforts are necessarily counteracted at home by confinement in small apartments which no ordinary attention can render clean and warm, or supply with pure air. From this mistake in the necessary time and this fear of expense, the usual term of residence of boarders at the Asylum little accords with the customary periods in other Institutions.

It is believed the public have much to learn respecting lunatics : — that insanity is curable — that a few weeks or months are not sufficient for a reasonable trial — that medical treatment and moral management are both important in all cases — that absence from home is always indispensable — that a lunatic at home perceives he is watched and followed in every movement, and deems every restraint to be an act of tyranny and usurpation; inducing hatred towards nearest relatives and dearest friends — that the amusements provided in establishments for lunatics, as draughts, chess, backgammon, ninepins, swinging, sawing wood, gardening, reading, writing, music, &c., divert the attention from unpleasant subjects of thought, and afford exercise both of body and mind — that even the conversation of lunatics with each other, in some cases, convinces them of the absurdity of their opinions and produces a cure. . and finally, that lunatics are not insensible to kind treatment, that whips and chains are forever banished from every well regulated Asylum for the insane, and that kindness and humanity have succeeded to severity and cruelty.

Rufus worked tirelessly in the asylum even after his health once again began to fail. In May of 1832, he tendered his resignation, but "the Trustees declined to accept it, granting him instead a leave of absense for recuperation. He spent the early summer away and resumed his duties in August. In September, he was relieved of his superintendent duties but stayed at the same salery he had when fulfilling both positions. With his lightened duties, Rufus was able to continue until January of 1835 when he again tendered his resignation. This time it was accepted.

Rufus moved to Roxbury with his wife and children still living with him. Two of his sons became eminent doctors in their own right. Morrill (4C7X) was a prominent physician who was very active in the community and Jeffies (named after Rufus' first medical partner) was a naturalist who became the first curator of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. We'll have more on Jeffries in our next post.

Rufus died in 1842 at age 63. Dr. Luther Bell who took over the asylum a year after Rufus retired had this to say about him:

Indeed, to this day scarce any institution can be visited in the land where evidences of the operations of his mind do not present themselves on every hand, not only in details of architectural and mechanical arrangements but in the moral regimen and internal system.

Year after year passed away without ever finding him absent from the field of his charge even for a single night. Indeed, for some seventeen years, until his health failed under these labors and anxieties, he was scarcely absent from the hearing and the sight of the insane.

a tragic accident in the Zebediah Wyman home

Rufus' brother Zebediah, Jr. (4C7X) was born in 1770 in Woburn. He married in Woburn in 1799 and raised his family there. He was town clerk from 1794 to 1804 and town treasurer from 1802 to 1813. In the History of Middlesex County, MA, we learn of a tragedy that befell his family:

Mary  Ann (5C6X), child  of  Zebadiah   Wyman,  was  burned  to  death, Sunday,  January  5,  1806.  The  particulars  of  the  death  of  Mary  Ann,  child  of Zebadiah  Wyman,  are  told  more  fully  by  her  father in  the  family  MSB.  The  accident  occurred  at  3 o'clock  P.M.,  on  the  Sabbath.  Her  mother  and  herself were  at  home,  while  the  rest  of  the  family  had gone to  meeting.  The  child  undertook  to  kindle  a fire  in the  house,  when  her  clothes  caught  fire.  By shaking  them  to  put  it  out  a  blaze  was  created  and instantly  she  was  wrapped  in  flames.  Her  mother's exertions  were  unavailing;  the  child  died  in  twenty-four  hours  after.  At  the  moment  of  the  accident, Mr.  Chickering,  the  minister,  was  relating  the  deaths of  the  year  past  in  the  parish  and  entreating  the  people to  consider  the  uncertainty  of  life.  "'At  that moment,'"  writes  her  father,  "the  fatal  scene  opened on  Mary  Ann!"

Zebediah died in 1844 at the age of 74.

the sad ending of Oliver Cromwell Wyman

Our cousin Oliver Cromwell Wyman (5C6X) was born in Woburn in 1771. Ca. 1798, he moved to Concord where he worked in our cousin John Richardson's (5C6X) tavern. We wrote about John, the owner of the Middlesex Hotel, in our "Revolutionary Stories V" post. Ca. 1802, Oliver married Abigail Reed and, about the same time, he became a member of the Corcord Social Circle. Our cousin Abiel Heywood (3C6X), who we wrote about in our post "Cousin Abiel Heywood" was also a member of the Social Circle in Concord. After their deaths, all of the members had a memorial written about them by another Social Circle member. Below is Oliver's written by Nehemiah Ball.

MEMOIR OF OLIVER C. WYMAN.

BY NEHEMIAH BALL.

In regard to Mr. Wyman, the most reliable information concerning him in connection with my own recollection is that he was born in Ashby, in this county, and during his minority he resided at different places in the town of Concord, and about the year 1798~9 was in the employ of John Richardson, who then kept the Jail Tavern in this town, and with whom he resided several years.

About the year 1802 he was married to Abigail Reed, a domestic in the family of Mr. Richardson, and who came from some part of the State of Maine. Subsequently he occupied as a tavern the house lately owned by Deacon Tolman, where he continued till 1804, when he moved to Boston, and for a short period followed the same business of tavern-keeping there.

On relinquishing this business he finally established himself as a broker, in which business he continued till about the year 1810, when, owing to losses and ill-success in business, he became insolvent, and shortly after committed suicide.

He joined the Social Circle about the time he married, in 1802. He was probably about forty years old at the time of his decease.

Cousin Oliver was actually 58 years of age at the time of his sad death.